Turkey Stuffing for the Super-Allergic

Gastrointestinal illnesses can do severe harm to your intestines and to your ability to digest - break down - foods. One form of lactose intolerance (LI), called secondary lactose intolerance to distinguish it from primary LI, or the type that occurs just from aging, occurs when an illness damages the lining on the inside of the small intestine. That's where the lactase enzyme is made. If that sensitive area is damaged, then lactose won't be digested, either until the area heals properly (so the problem is sometimes known as temporary LI) or permanently.

Other problems can also be caused. But I've never heard of damage as bad as happened to the poor gentlemen who wrote in to Chef Heston Blumenthal's cooking column in the UK's Independent newspaper. Yet there seems to be an answer for everything, even for the extremely severely allergic.

Q. After an illness, I have been left dangerously allergic or intolerant to: gluten, wheat, corn, yeast, nuts, lactose, fructose, nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes etc), soya and other legumes. How can I stuff the turkey?

A. Barley's usually OK for people with allergies, as are oats. You could make stuffing with meat from the leg of the turkey, cooked with some onions, garlic, barley, chopped liver, a few oats and a little bit of sage or rosemary.